“The survey results correspond with the trend found within different surveys. Although most Czech people prefer Pilsen type beer, they are willing to experiment and taste different beer, it means unknown or unusual brands,” commented Ing. Josef Vacl, CSc. of PORT spol. s r.o. on the results. “The fact that we participate in beer events to meet family and friends is not surprising. It confirmed that in our country beer is not just a drink to quench thirst but also a drink having a certain social function,” added Josef Vacl.
Other most frequently mentioned reasons for participation in beer and brewery events are music and a cultural programme, followed by gastronomy. Over a half of the respondents find music and the cultural component of beer and brewery events rather important or very important. In contrary, it has very little importance for 18 % of them.
Over a half of the respondents regard the gastronomic component of beer and brewery events as rather important or very important. In contrary, two fifths consider it little important or unimportant. There are more of those who expect, besides the possibility to taste beer, to connect its consumption with interesting gastronomy.
“It was confirmed that music and, generally, a cultural programme is an inseparable part of beer events but their role should not be overvalued,” said Josef Vacl when talking about another part of the survey. “This is connected with the fact that gastronomy is an interesting part of beer events, but its role cannot be regarded as the reason for which people attend events with beer,” added Josef Vacl.
Among the survey tasks was to find out how information on beer and brewery events reach their participants. It was expected that the boom of social media would manifest itself in this area of communication, too. However, the respondents’ reactions show that over a half of them received information on beer events by word of mouth. More than two fifths of the respondents found information on events in media or on the internet. In contrary, just under a third of the respondents got information via social networks. Very few respondents, approximately 10 % of them, received information from websites of towns, villages or breweries.
In addition, the survey showed that almost a half of beer events participants do not consider it important whether the event is organised by one brewery or more of them. If they find it important, they prefer those events in which more breweries of more entities or groups participate. At the same time, it was found that the group of those who want to get to know other drinks of the brewery production is three times smaller than the group of those who wish to get to know new beer; however, this group is still larger than the group of people who intend to drink only the beer of the common production of breweries they know.
Participation in beer and brewery festivals it not planned in advance. Practically two thirds of respondents stated that they did not plan participation in such events in advance and that it depended on current circumstances. Only 8 % of the respondents attend beer events regularly and systematically, with beer events having a firm place in their calendar. This is a proof of the fact that there is much to be improved in marketing and planning of these kinds of activities.
The survey also wanted to find out how much the respondents planned to spend at beer events. The most frequent answer (44 %) was that the respondents planned to spend between two and four hundred of Czech Crowns, and almost the same percentage of the respondents planned to spend more than 400 Crowns.
The survey involving more than a hundred respondents over 18 years of age from all regions of the Czech Republic confirmed that beer and brewery events are not only a marketing and commercial set of activities for breweries and municipalities, but also a social phenomenon for the public.